The All Around Festival Of Jackassery That Was The O’Donnell Vs. Castle Race

The big story from last night was, of course, Christine O’Donnell’s victory over ultra-RINO Mike Castle in what may have been the biggest festival of jackassery in years. It was a really nasty, ugly campaign on both sides.

On the Castle side, not only were their insults over the top, but the squishy GOP state party blatantly sided with Castle and publicly attacked O’Donnell. That was astoundingly stupid and of course, Mike Castle, who’s a career politician with a sense of entitlement, doesn’t even have the class to endorse O’Donnell. It’s genuinely enjoyable to see that creep get a big serving of humble pie, which he will get to enjoy in the private sector. Topping it all off, there are establishment Republicans stamping their angry little feet on TV and the NRSC very publicly made it known that they’re having an establishment snitfit and aren’t going to help O’Donnell at all. It just proves something that some of us have been saying all along: The NRSC is completely incompetent and the gains we make this year will be in spite of them, not because of them.

On the other hand, Christine O’Donnell is a conservative, but she’s not a blue chip candidate, Delaware is not even a purple state and she has about a 98% chance of losing. Would she be a huge improvement over Castle if she gets elected? AB-SO-FREAKING-LUTELY. But, that’s the thing: it would practically take a miracle for her to win, even in a year like this one. Conservatives who pointed this very obvious fact out and said it was better to have a squish like Castle than a Democrat in the Senate were demonized as squishes, sheeple, sell-outs, you name it. Some of that goes with the territory, but other people went so over the top with it that they made themselves look like clowns.

The simple reality is that a Republican squish like Castle, who would have won easily and been comparable to Collins and Snowe, would do far more to help move the ball forward for conservatives than Chris Coons, who has actually referred to himself as a Marxist before. So, whether this race was a “victory for conservatism” has yet to be determined. If Chris Coons predictably ends up in the Senate because O’Donnell supporters turned what looked like a “gimmie” seat for Republicans into a “gimmie” seat for Democrats, O’Donnell’s win last night was a huge victory for liberalism, not conservatism.

Moreover, while it was extremely dumb for the NRSC to make a point of letting people know that they weren’t going to help O’Donnell (Expect the RNC to handle it more intelligently), the reality is that the NRSC CAN’T afford to help her. They don’t have a lot of money and if you are picking out candidates that should be funded before O’Donnell, their names include (in no particular order): Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Rand Paul, Dino Rossi, John Raese, Linda McMahon, Ron Johnson, Marco Rubio, Roy Blunt, Mark Kirk, Pat Toomey, Joe Miller, Rob Portman, Carly Fiorina, whoever wins New Hampshire, and even Richard Burr, who’s struggling more than he should be in North Carolina.

Even if you took out half of those names, the NRSC still wouldn’t have much money to pour into Christine O’Donnell’s campaign — and she desperately needs it. She had $69,931 cash on hand at her last fund raising report. Yes, she will get a burst of money from this win, but it’s likely that she’ll still end up being dramatically underfunded.

Now, all that being said, the winner of the primary is Christine O’Donnell — and, yes, it would be nice to have her in the Senate. So, whether people supported Castle or O’Donnell, it’s time to rally around O’Donnell now. Although I preferred Castle and thought O’Donnell probably can’t win the general, I very much hope I’m wrong about that and I’d love nothing better than to eat crow on election day, because if I do, that means we added another real conservative in the Senate. For whatever it’s worth, even if O’Donnell loses, Castle was a squishy, effete establishment ass and watching him go down in flames may at least frighten Snowe and Collins enough to pull them to the Right over the next couple of years. So, even if O’Donnell does lose the general, at least that much lumpy, poor tasting lemonade can be made out of it.

Update #1:John Cornyn got the only kind of education establishment Republicans like him understand, multiple grassroots boots upside the head, and now he wants you to know he LOVES him some Christine O’Donnell =D:

Let there be no mistake: The National Republican Senatorial Committee — and I personally as the committee’s chairman — strongly stand by all of our Republican nominees, including Christine O’Donnell in Delaware.

I reached out to Christine this morning, and as I have conveyed to all of our nominees, I offered her my personal congratulations and let her know that she has our support. This support includes a check for $42,000 — the maximum allowable donation that we have provided to all of our nominees — which the NRSC will send to her campaign today.

Update #2: When I say O’Donnell it’ll practically take a miracle for O’Donnell to win, these numbers from PPP show you what I mean,

Chris Coons begins the general election in Delaware with a 50-34 lead over Christine O’Donnell. Mike Castle would have led Coons by a 45-35 margin.

While O’Donnell may have ingratiated herself to Delaware’s small group of registered Republicans over the last month she’s turned off everyone else. (Her Favorability) is now 29/50.

Also, just for the record, those numbers have been trending DOWN, not UP.